If we ask in a contest for you to build a model, we want to see your creativity at work. A lot of people who entered the Makuta contest just built Mutran and took a picture of him and sent it in as their entry. We want to see what you can build on your own, not how well you can follow the building instructions in a set.
How are things like Vengeance(who was basically a Kikanalo with some stuff thrown on) explained?
Agreed! So many of the Dark Hunter entries were awful. I don't mean to brag, but at least my entry was original and mostly custom, not to mention color coded and smooth. Now the winners of the Rahi contest... now those were good.
BtB
Agreed as well! I don't like seeing things that don't have a color scheme or a sense of build. (No offense, but people need to be told to improve, not told they rock.)
-CF
Ah, but read Greg's blog entry again. The reason some of the winners may not have been the best is because some of the better entries have had to be disqualified for the various reasons Greg stated in this entry. ~SB~
I doubt that most of the good entries out of a pool of 10,000 were disqualified for any of those reasons. I think that one of Lego's judging criteria is age, and that's not a good thing, IMO. Especially since they don't tell you the creators age in the books. If they did that perhaps I wouldn't be so harsh on some of the models.
BtB
Oooh, good point. But you have to admit, a few good ones most likely get knocked out in every competition for disqualification. Also, the majority of the BrickMasters and the fan base aren't very good Mocer's. I mean, how many ToM Dracone's Czar's, Seranikai, and Caggerin' do you think are there in every competition.
Guys, sorry if I spelled your names wrong but you know who I mean.
...And i expected the worst we heard about to be Antroz with a random mask... but it's Mutran. Setaccurate. Yipes. Say, when will the winners know if they won?
If we ask in a contest for you to build a model, we want to see your creativity at work. A lot of people who entered the Makuta contest just built Mutran and took a picture of him and sent it in as their entry. We want to see what you can build on your own, not how well you can follow the building instructions in a set.
How are things like Vengeance(who was basically a Kikanalo with some stuff thrown on) explained?
Agreed! So many of the Dark Hunter entries were awful. I don't mean to brag, but at least my entry was original and mostly custom, not to mention color coded and smooth. Now the winners of the Rahi contest... now those were good.
BtB
Agreed as well! I don't like seeing things that don't have a color scheme or a sense of build. (No offense, but people need to be told to improve, not told they rock.)
-CF
Ah, but read Greg's blog entry again. The reason some of the winners may not have been the best is because some of the better entries have had to be disqualified for the various reasons Greg stated in this entry. ~SB~
I doubt that most of the good entries out of a pool of 10,000 were disqualified for any of those reasons. I think that one of Lego's judging criteria is age, and that's not a good thing, IMO. Especially since they don't tell you the creators age in the books. If they did that perhaps I wouldn't be so harsh on some of the models.
BtB
Oooh, good point. But you have to admit, a few good ones most likely get knocked out in every competition for disqualification. Also, the majority of the BrickMasters and the fan base aren't very good Mocer's. I mean, how many ToM Dracone's Czar's, Seranikai, and Caggerin' do you think are there in every competition.
Guys, sorry if I spelled your names wrong but you know who I mean.
~SB~
Hence my point about it being silly to have all the Bionicle contests in Brickmaster. BtB
First off, "all" the BIONICLE contests over the years have not been in BrickMaster. Only the last two, I believe. If I could have, I would have put the Makuta contest into the free LEGO Magazine -- but what content goes into the free magazine is determined by the US Brand team for BIONICLE. If they want to focus on some other aspect of the sets or story in the magazine rather than do a contest, then we don't do a contest. BrickMaster pages, on the other hand, are decided on purely by the LEGO Magazine editorial team, so I have a lot more freedom to do things with them.
Secondly, we do not have an age criteria when we judge entries. In contests where we do, it is spelled out in the rules. For example, one of our recent winners for Police Power is a 39 year old man and his 11 year old son. We have also done contests like the recent Norwegian Cruise line one where we have had multiple age categories and a winner in each.
However, there are a lot of criteria that go into judging, quite apart from "color" and "build." We also look at the essay, and in the case of the DH contest, whether the character is interesting and will fit in well with what we have in mind. The vast majority of the DH and Rahi entries were not changed radically from their original write-ups, just polished. Simple fact is, though, that BIONICLE and Star Wars contests are highly competitive because they get the most entries. And contrary to the comment made in here, a fairly large percentage of entries in every contest get scrapped because they are bad photos or printed on standard printer paper or part of the set got cut off in the picture. In addition, there is also the issue of multiple people sending in basically the same model -- for example, we must have gotten at least 1000 scorpions in the Rahi contest. A lot of them were great, but I can't put 12 scorpions into the Rahi book, so we put them all together and picked the one or two we thought were best.
If you haven't won, please do not impugn the contest process -- as it says in the rules, when you enter, you agree to accept the decisions of the judges. If you aren't willing to do that, don't enter.
To answer Aanchir's questions, I am the lead judge on all BIONICLE contests, with Swiftone being the lead judge for all Star Wars contests. The others we split at random between us. Final judging is normally done by the two of us with assistance from artists and/or Master Builders.
Consider this, though -- if you are a BrickMaster, your odds of winning a contest shoot up, because there is a smaller pool of entrants. And since BIONICLE contests are among our most popular, it only makes sense to put a few in BM, since we are trying to make that publication as appealing as possible to paid subscribers, the same way BZP reserves certain things here for premium members to drive subscriptions.
I also wouldn't be so fast to dismiss BMs as bad MOCers -- one 15-year old BZPer is a BM and consistently wins building contests, both in BM and in free. The Landmark Building Contest we held last year in BM produced some of the best MOCs anyone at the office had seen in ages. Yes, there are younger and less experienced builders in BM, but they also exist on BZP and in every other fan forum out there.
BioHero - But if they "leave it alone," how do they ever get any better? Is every MOCer an expert from the time they start, day one? Or do they learn and get better through practice? Should a kid not put his entry up on display and feel that sense of pride, just because it doesn't happen to meet your standards? At the end of the day, LEGO building is an art, and that makes LEGO models a matter of taste -- what you think is lousy, someone else might like, same as with paintings or sculpture or any other art form. Should we set some sort of standard and then ban all builders who don't meet it from having the thrill of knowing their work is being viewed by their peers?
Turahaga...And i expected the worst we heard about to be Antroz with a random mask... but it's Mutran. Setaccurate. Yipes. Say, when will the winners know if they won?
Antroz with a random mask? Woah. And I thought a Maxilos rip-off with a Rahkshi head was bad.....
While I, of course am anoyed with the poor DH MOCs that won, I understand what has been said. In general, it is fair.
And on contests only being in BrickMaster mags, I understand I'm perfectly fine with it. Problem is, it is only available in the US. There should be a way for other countries (such as the UK? ) to get involved. I didn't even know about the DH contest while it was on, or Makuta Building Contest.
And seeing as it's been over a week Greg, i'l assume you didn't recieve my PM. I'll type it up again.
But if they "leave it alone," how do they ever get any better? Is every MOCer an expert from the time they start, day one? Or do they learn and get better through practice? Should a kid not put his entry up on display and feel that sense of pride, just because it doesn't happen to meet your standards? At the end of the day, LEGO building is an art, and that makes LEGO models a matter of taste -- what you think is lousy, someone else might like, same as with paintings or sculpture or any other art form. Should we set some sort of standard and then ban all builders who don't meet it from having the thrill of knowing their work is being viewed by their peers?
Yeah. I'm not that good of an MOCer yet, but I would have been even worse if I did not enter the 2 contests that I lost. But now I know a little more about creativity and originality. It used to be where I would combine the instructions for 2 sets and call it done. But now I've improved a little, and if I didn't try, I couldn't have gotten to the fairly normal position that I'm in now. My chances are a little better for the Makuta contest, though I really don't expect to win.
Thanks for the tips, Greg. I guess I'll have to subscribe to BM someday soon, it seems worth it. I wonder how many more Mutran entries would have been received if the contest was in the free magazine. *shutters*
All this seems commen sense to me. Still, was the percentage of "set accurate" entries high, or just an irritance? Oh and any plans for the overall head of Brickmaster disrubution to let all those non-American residents in on these bm-exclusive contests, since you are shutting out a lot of creativity this way.
Why are the Bionicle contests always in Brickmaster? It really bugs me... BtB
Presumably so that people will buy the Brickmaster magazine.
That's silly. Now they have a smaller pool to pull the winners from = the winner probably won't be as good as it could be. BtB
acctually, a smaller amount of competiton means there is more of a chnce, so thik of it like this: what is the better ratio(estimated): 1:10,000,000(normal mag) 1:10,000(brickmaster mag)
-Is this contest still open? -Do you have to live somewhere to enter? (eg. US residents only) -Do you make a Makuta already existent or can it be fan-made? -If it is already existent, Can it be one not already made? (e.g. Spiriah) -Who do I give my entry to?
Oooh, good point. But you have to admit, a few good ones most likely get knocked out in every competition for disqualification. Also, the majority of the BrickMasters and the fan base aren't very good Mocer's. I mean, how many ToM Dracone's Czar's, Seranikai, and Caggerin' do you think are there in every competition.
Guys, sorry if I spelled your names wrong but you know who I mean.
~SB~
Say, when will the winners know if they won?
BtB
Secondly, we do not have an age criteria when we judge entries. In contests where we do, it is spelled out in the rules. For example, one of our recent winners for Police Power is a 39 year old man and his 11 year old son. We have also done contests like the recent Norwegian Cruise line one where we have had multiple age categories and a winner in each.
However, there are a lot of criteria that go into judging, quite apart from "color" and "build." We also look at the essay, and in the case of the DH contest, whether the character is interesting and will fit in well with what we have in mind. The vast majority of the DH and Rahi entries were not changed radically from their original write-ups, just polished. Simple fact is, though, that BIONICLE and Star Wars contests are highly competitive because they get the most entries. And contrary to the comment made in here, a fairly large percentage of entries in every contest get scrapped because they are bad photos or printed on standard printer paper or part of the set got cut off in the picture. In addition, there is also the issue of multiple people sending in basically the same model -- for example, we must have gotten at least 1000 scorpions in the Rahi contest. A lot of them were great, but I can't put 12 scorpions into the Rahi book, so we put them all together and picked the one or two we thought were best.
If you haven't won, please do not impugn the contest process -- as it says in the rules, when you enter, you agree to accept the decisions of the judges. If you aren't willing to do that, don't enter.
To answer Aanchir's questions, I am the lead judge on all BIONICLE contests, with Swiftone being the lead judge for all Star Wars contests. The others we split at random between us. Final judging is normally done by the two of us with assistance from artists and/or Master Builders.
Greg
I also wouldn't be so fast to dismiss BMs as bad MOCers -- one 15-year old BZPer is a BM and consistently wins building contests, both in BM and in free. The Landmark Building Contest we held last year in BM produced some of the best MOCs anyone at the office had seen in ages. Yes, there are younger and less experienced builders in BM, but they also exist on BZP and in every other fan forum out there.
BioHero - But if they "leave it alone," how do they ever get any better? Is every MOCer an expert from the time they start, day one? Or do they learn and get better through practice? Should a kid not put his entry up on display and feel that sense of pride, just because it doesn't happen to meet your standards? At the end of the day, LEGO building is an art, and that makes LEGO models a matter of taste -- what you think is lousy, someone else might like, same as with paintings or sculpture or any other art form. Should we set some sort of standard and then ban all builders who don't meet it from having the thrill of knowing their work is being viewed by their peers?
Greg
And on contests only being in BrickMaster mags, I understand I'm perfectly fine with it. Problem is, it is only available in the US. There should be a way for other countries (such as the UK?
I didn't even know about the DH contest while it was on, or Makuta Building Contest.
And seeing as it's been over a week Greg, i'l assume you didn't recieve my PM. I'll type it up again.
Yeah. I'm not that good of an MOCer yet, but I would have been even worse if I did not enter the 2 contests that I lost. But now I know a little more about creativity and originality. It used to be where I would combine the instructions for 2 sets and call it done. But now I've improved a little, and if I didn't try, I couldn't have gotten to the fairly normal position that I'm in now. My chances are a little better for the Makuta contest, though I really don't expect to win.
on a seprate note: Does anyone know the next contest is? Or does no one know yet?
acctually, a smaller amount of competiton means there is more of a chnce, so thik of it like this:
what is the better ratio(estimated):
1:10,000,000(normal mag)
1:10,000(brickmaster mag)
now do you see?
oh, and also less entries=less work for lego
It's over.
-Is this contest still open?
-Do you have to live somewhere to enter? (eg. US residents only)
-Do you make a Makuta already existent or can it be fan-made?
-If it is already existent, Can it be one not already made? (e.g. Spiriah)
-Who do I give my entry to?
-k-